A Mermaid s Kiss (Daughters of Arianne 1)

Anna knew Mina wasn't lying about them being out of time. The urgency coming off of her was palpable. But the answer she'd always wanted from the witch was behind this--she was sure of it. "Except me," she pressed. "You're doing this because I'm tied up with him somehow in this vision, aren't I?"

Mina started shoving at the unconscious angel again. "I can see the way you look at him. You're going to do that stupid thing you do, risking everything for one of your ridiculous compulsions. I'm duty bound to protect you, aren't I? Our shared curse and all." Mina's lips pulled back from her teeth, an unattractive feral snarl.

"You're duty bound not to cause me harm," Anna persisted. "That's different."

"If I don't protect you when I know you're in danger, it's the same thing. Now, stop arguing and get in the water before I turn you into a sponge."

"Nevada is a desert state," Anna said. "Far from the shoreline."

"Well, it's good you can become human, isn't it? Now, quickly, there are other rules. You must travel by Fate alone. You can't rent a car, or however you move around among the humans. Someone must pick you up."

"Or else what?"

Mina gave her a look that could have speared a fish. "Magic doesn't usually have the patience to explain itself, Anna. But ignore it at your own peril. Trust me."

At last Anna joined Jonah in the water, held on to him while the seawitch prepared to shift back to tentacles and gills. "I guess, at the very least, it makes practical sense," she considered doubtfully. "If I want to keep him safe until he recovers, he needs to go where they don't expect him to be. Why would they expect him to be on land, on his way to Nevada? It sounds ludicrous to me, so it may be beyond their imagining as well."

Mina nodded. "Neither the angels nor the Dark Ones know his whereabouts. But they all know he went into the sea. Nothing is farther from the sea than the desert. Even so, travel only by day, when he's human. Even that's going to be a risk, because his power signature is strong. The Dark Ones will track that signature. They won't be able to pin it on him during the day, but if they're in his vicinity when night falls, they might be able to find him. So stay undercover at night. No traveling.

"Now, mind me on this as well. Two days." She gave Anna a sharp look. "You head back toward the ocean after two days. I don't care if you've gotten there or not. You promise me."

"Do you care for me at all?" Anna asked abruptly. Reaching out, she snagged the witch's cloak, careful not to touch her skin, since she knew Mina hated that. "Tell me true, in case we never see one another again. Is it just the curse between us?"

"Anna, stop it. We don't have time for this."

"Yes," Anna said steadily, gazing at her. "We do. I'm twenty years old. You know we may never see one another again. Tell me, just this once. What is the truth between us?"

Mina drew back, and for a moment Anna saw both of her eyes. One red, emanating the dangerous malevolence of Mina's Dark sire. The other a sapphire blue, equally disturbing in its intensity, reminding Anna that Mina's mother had been one of the most feared seawitches in the ocean.

"As long as you insist on helping him, you're a target. I care not whether an angel lives or dies. But there's only one of you."

Anna stared at her. "Those were almost the first words he spoke to me. 'There are many angels. There is only one of you.' "

"Maybe he's not an idiot, after all. Stay safe, Anna. You're important."

Important to Mina? Or to this vision?

However, before she could ask another question, Mina shoved her under the water and dumped Jonah all the way in, on top of her. Anna thrashed beneath the weight of his body, sputtering and cursing, before she managed the transition back to mermaid and could use the balance of her tail to help her seize a portion of the unconscious angel. By that time Mina was in the water with her.

The seawitch watched Anna get her arms around the angel until she was holding him securely, as if she thought her world would end if she let him go. She told herself it didn't matter that she hadn't told Anna everything. The mermaid had an irritatingly overblown sense of responsibility as it was.

And Anna was right--her time was running out. Mina should be glad the mermaid would no longer be her responsibility.

Instead, one of the seeds of the vision came back to her, disturbing the seawitch more than she cared to admit.

She is the only one who can save him.

AS Mina predicted, they'd talked too long. They weren't quite to the surface when the physical transformation began.

Anna was forced to a stop, her arm latched around Jonah's upper body as it writhed, convulsed in the grip of the potion's effect. As Mina held his legs, the wings slowly dissolved, a few handfuls of feathers drifting away on the current.

Like a sudden explosion, overwhelming desolation detonated through Anna. This plan would not work. It was going to fail. She was going to fail Jonah, and he would die.

Her gaze shot to Mina, frightened. Her friend's eyes had become wild, mouth taut. She gestured upward. "Ignore it. Keep going. I'll draw them off. Two days inland, Anna. Don't forget."

"But what if he won't go on without me?"

"That's his Fate. You can't make his choices, can you? Now promise me--"

Despair closed in, knocking Anna back like the blow from a strong wake. Only the fierce hold she had on Jonah's body kept him with her.

Mina gave her a searing look, seized an armful of glowing feathers, and flipped backward. She shot back down through the water like an arrow, away from Anna. Toward the source of those dark and hopeless feelings.

"Mina, no!" Anna fumbled her burden and began to sink.

No. They weren't getting him, not this way. She wouldn't let them compel her to surrender. Gritting her teeth, she seized Jonah under the arms and started pumping upward as fast and hard as she could. Without the wings, it was actually easier.

Ten strokes later, her heart choked her as she realized he was now human. He had to breathe. Frantic, she stopped, hovered and closed her mouth over his, breathed. Gave him air from her lungs. Then stroked upward again. Up fifteen strokes, breathe for him, drop five.

And each time, despite the circumstances, she couldn't help but feel desire at the touch of his mouth. She had to focus to make sure she breathed into it instead of nibbling, tasting. By the time she made the surface, she was gasping, her vision gray. Her mermaid form allowed her to breathe with gills or lungs interchangeably, but she'd had to use her lungs to keep air in him. Now she drank in oxygen greedily, floating a moment and holding him to her side before she rolled him to his back and began to navigate toward the distant shore. They were a couple miles out, but she knew that shoreline, had swum toward it before. Cradling his jaw, she held his throat as she moved, keeping his mouth and nose above the waterline. His hair brushed her arm, and she hoped he wouldn't wake before they reached land. She didn't want him to realize his form had changed and he'd been betrayed while they were still in the water. He might just be piqued enough to drown himself. Or her.

The sense of the Dark Ones faded, telling her Mina had been successful in drawing them off. She swallowed over a jagged ache in her throat. Please let her be all right. Even while praying for that, she knew her bond with the seawitch was pathetic. Her one enduring relationship was with someone who despised the sight of her most of the time.

She kept on, fiercely focusing on her destination. While Mina had said as a human he would not be detectable as an angel, Anna didn't want anyone investigating why a mermaid was rescuing a stranded human out as far as this when there were no capsized boats in the area. She swam as fast as she could, pushing herself, holding on to him, praying for Mina.

JONAH surfaced slowly, fe

eling as if he were swimming through sand. Weighted down, but curiously weightless as well. Hazy. Nauseated. Nausea?

Though he was on his back, he managed to roll to his side before he started throwing up, an altogether astounding and unpleasant first-time experience that felt like his insides were being squeezed by a large, punishing fist. Fortunately, he was at the tide line. He convulsed, fighting against it as he would an enemy, but his body would not be denied.

When he finished, he rinsed out his mouth with seawater and rolled back, passed his hands over his eyes. The sun. He was above the water. But something was wrong. Everything seemed muted, as if his finely tuned senses had been stuffed with cotton. As he tried to struggle back to a sitting position, he found himself still off balance. He straightened out his wings to steady himself and . . .

He had no wings. No wings. Groping at his back, he twisted, turned and found out that not only were his wings gone, but he was wearing human clothes. A black cotton T-shirt, and a pair of jeans, both too snug over the musculature of his shoulders and thighs.

Then he became aware he was being watched.

She sat nearby, her back against a large piece of driftwood, hands tightly clasped in one nervous ball on her knees. He vaguely registered she also was wearing clothing. A light, gauzy top that stretched over her breasts, outlining the sweet points of her nipples. Slim straps over her shoulders. A skirt of similar fabric brushed her ankles in her bent-legged position, the hem rippling over the tops of her bare feet. Her golden brown hair was tied back, but of course it was so long the curly ends had blown forward, caressing her wrists, tangling them like restraints, holding her in that spot as if she were a captive awaiting his punishment.

"It's okay," she said quietly, as he made it to one knee and stared at her. "It's disorienting at first. When I go from legs to a tail and back again. But you adjust to it in time. And you won't have to get used to it for long--"

In two steps he was on her, seizing her shoulders, though he stumbled and fell to one knee again, his head spinning. She caught him, and they ended up tumbling together, her on top as he hit the sand. Cursing, he rolled to his side, taking her under him, holding her with bruising hands.